An international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the vaccine companies FluGen along with Bharat Biotech has begun the development and testing of a vaccine against Covid-19 called CoroFlu.

Hyderabad-based biotech company is working on developing a nasal vaccine for Covid-19. An international collaboration of virologists at the University of WisconsinMadison and the vaccine companies FluGen along with Bharat Biotech has begun the development and testing of a vaccine against Covid-19 called CoroFlu.

CoroFlu will build on the backbone of FluGen's flu vaccine candidate known as M2SR, which a self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response against the flu. The virologists will insert gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the disease Covid-19, into M2SR so that the new vaccine will also induce immunity against the novel coronavirus.

"Bharat Biotech will manufacture the vaccine, conduct clinical trials, and prepare to produce almost 300 million doses of vaccine for global distribution. Under the collaboration agreement, FluGen will transfer its existing manufacturing processes to Bharat Biotech to enable the company to scale up production and produce the vaccine for clinical trials," Dr Raches Ella, Head of Business Development, Bharat Biotech said.

Refinement of the CoroFlu vaccine concept and testing in laboratory animal models at UWMadison is expected to take three to six months. Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad, India will then begin production scale-up for safety and efficacy testing in humans. The company expects CoroFlu to be in human clinical trials by late 2020.